Unit 2

Question 1

What kind of empiricist was Locke?

Answer 1

An object empiricist

Question 2

Explain Locke’s Tabula Rasa.

Answer 2

the mind is a blank slate, to be filled by the acquisition of empirical knowledge

Question 3

State and explain the two parts of empiricism

Answer 3

1) Subjective empiricism
- Perception = reality
2) Objective empiricism
- Perception + experiences = reality

Question 4

What are primary qualities?

Answer 4

measurable qualities

• Hooves, hair, head
• Everyone sees it the same

Question 5

What are secondary qualities?

Answer 5

trivial qualities

- size, colour, shape

Question 6

What are the flaws of empiricism?

Answer 6

1) Certainty
- How do we know what our sense are telling us is
real? Senses can lie to us
2) Diversity
- There’s so many beliefs and opinion that we are
trying to beat each other by senses (trying to prove
ourselves)
- We all have different sensory experiences

Question 7

What kind of empiricist was George Berkeley?

Answer 7

Subjective

Question 8

What was Berkeley’s view on empiricism?

Answer 8

• Yes our senses give us our data but primary and secondary qualities are crap  all qualities are mind dependant
• Only minds and their ideas exist
• Berkeley says that all things are mind dependant. Who’s mind? God
• God is forever perceiving everything

Question 9

What kind of philosopher was Descartes?

Answer 9

a rationalist

Question 10

What is A Priori knowledge?

Answer 10

knowledge that does not depend on senses

Question 11

What is A posteriori knowledge?

Answer 11

knowledge that depends on senses

Question 12

What are rationalists view on senses?

Answer 12

Senses are needed to obtain knowledge, but fundamental knowledge comes from your brain

Question 13

State and explain Descartes’ famous quote.

Answer 13

“I think, therefore I am”
- You exist because you are capable of thinking and
therefore your mind must also exist

Question 14

What proves rationalism is imperial to empiricism?

Answer 14

self-awareness

- self-awareness separates us from animals

Question 15

What are the steps for the mind to perceive change?

Answer 15

1) Perceive
2) Distinguish (analyzing) – the actual change, your mind notices (ex. Different smells)
3) Differentiate (after analyzing) – first time you see something, compare to that last time you see something

Question 16

According to Descartes, why is the mind no fallible?

Answer 16

• Argues that he could not have produced the idea of a perfect being, God, and neither could he have acquired it through senses
• Believes human mind is made in the image of god
• The mind is God dependant

Question 17

What are innate ideas?

Answer 17

Ideas you are born with

Question 18

What kind of philosopher was Hume?

Answer 18

An objective empiricist

Question 19

According to Hume, what are ideas and impressions?

Answer 19

Impressions – real life experiences - how to gain true knowledge
Ideas – water down impressions - other peoples’ experiences

Question 20

Hume stated that “you Can’t gain knowledge without sensory experiences”. What is an argument against this?

Answer 20

People study history and learn from the past

Question 21

What is Hume’s view on cause and effect?

Answer 21

Cause and effect doesn’t exist and is only human habit
- Guess your way through life = do not know what’s
going to happen next but using ideas to assume

Question 22

What are Hume’s beliefs on god?

Answer 22

God does not exist, he is an idea, not an impression

Question 23

What philosophy did Kant believe in?

Answer 23

Transcendental Idealism

Question 24

How does Transcendental Idealism work?

Answer 24

• Content of our knowledge is acquired through senses

- Form/structure of that knowledge is acquired by reason

Question 25

What is the realm of rationalism?

Answer 25

math and science

Question 26

What two patterns does our mind create to help us perceive the world?

Answer 26

1) Time | 2) Space - physical space

Question 27

What does Kant believe in regards to cause and effect?

Answer 27

Patterns created by the mind to help understand the world

Question 28

What is solipsism?

Answer 28

we are not real, we are living within someone else’s dream

Question 29

How do we know our mind is not a construct like space and time?

Answer 29

It endures through different perceptions and sensations rather than being changed by them

Question 30

What is unified awareness?

Answer 30

- the mind connects different sensations, strings them together to form patters, and uses them too comprehend its environment - When you cook an egg, the egg changes from when you crack it out of the egg and when you eat it  your mind can process this change without changing itself - The mind is capable of perceiving change, distinguishing, and differentiating change, the mind MUST endure through time and space

Question 31

What is Kuhn's Cycle of Normal Science?

Answer 31

1. Normal Science o A model that benefits and assists the majority of scientists - I.e. improvements to scientific equipment o Those who don’t create things that benefit others are called eccentrics 2. Model Drift o Problems (anomalies) arise in the model but the model is still useful. Thus, the problems are disregarded or downplayed. 3. Model Crisis o Anomalies become too big to ignore o Scientists try to find to fix the old model but making a new model is more compelling 4. Model Revolution o Eccentrics make a new model o Others follow this model when influential scientists do or when the old model retires 5. Paradigm Shift o New model becomes the normal science and scientists make new technology to support it

Question 32

What was Popper's Deduction?

Answer 32

Popper claimed that science is deduction, proceeding from thesis to falsification and if a scientific theory could not be falsified, it does not stand up as one

Question 33

What's an induction?

Answer 33

connecting know pieces of information to make an assumption

Question 34

Explain Galileo's contribution to modern science

Answer 34

- Galileo disproved Aristotle’s Geocentric View that everything revolved around the Earth - Discovered Earth’s gravitational contrast of 9.81 m/s - Aristotle thought that when a heavy object and a light object are dropped at the same time the heavier one would drop faster, but Galileo experimented with this and it was prove that they would both arrive on the ground at the time

Question 35

Explain Netwon's contribution to modern science

Answer 35

- Discovered universal law of gravitation and 3 laws of motion - Gave science internal consistency

Question 36

Explain Bacon's contribution to modern science

Answer 36

Came up with a set of procedures known as the Baconian Method which are used to isolate the cause of phenomenon